Nicaragua: Repercussions of Costa Rica UFO Sighting

The Journal of Hispanic Ufology
January 15, 2006

SOURCE: Nicaragua Hoy
DATE: 01.14.06

ALLEGED UFO CAUSED CONSTERNATION IN COSTA RICAN CAPITAL

SAN JOSE - When uncertainty still lingers in the air over the arrival of a giant tsunami, that later never appeared and was initially reported by commercial airliner pilots flying over the Central American Pacific Coast on Wednesday the 11th, hundreds of residents of [the Costa Rican] capital were witnesses to a new inexplicable phenomenon at noon on Friday.

Initial information on the Tsunami's existence emerged from Honduras, but a journalistic account in Costa Rica's La Nacion, indicated that an airliner pilot who took off from Juan Santamaria airport on his way to Ecuador, also reported the phenomenon to the terminal area's control tower.

"Telenoticias", Channel 7's news report in Costa Rica, presented on Thursday the recording in which the pilot can be heard informing the tower as to the apparent tsunami.

Emergency prevention and relief authroities from the various Central American countries, after consulting with scientific institutions linked to the case, dismissed the existence of a wave or any earthquake in the high seas that could have caused it. So what did the pilots see?

According to reports appearing in the Saturday editions of Costa Rican newspapers "Extra" and "Al Dia", the sighting of an alleged UFO caused a commotion among pedestrians and prompted the mobilization of reporters, photographers and camerament from various branches of media, who were mostly on their lunch hour.

"It was a luminous point that stood out in the clear blue skies and moved very slowly."

Word spread rapidly that a strange object was in the skies and within minutes, streetcorners were filled with people who strained to see the mysterious dot that no one could identify," according to part of "Diario Extra"'s information.

According to the information, the phenomenon was seen for over an hour and Costa Rican scientists have no explanation.

"As it turned out," added the paper, "they were three white lights moving slowly in the sky, one of them near San Jose's Central Park, another over the Jimenez Institute and the last one by the old Radio Monumental facilities." All of these locations are in the Costa Rican capital's business district.

The object was discovered because many people were looking skyward, after news programs presented UFO images taken that very same week, said "Extra".

"Al Dia" on the other hand, cited the statments of atmospheric physicist Walter Fernandez, whoclaimed that the spectacle was "caused by one of the balloons employed in Costa Rica for a series of atmospheric expriments and measurements." These balloons are launched at 6 am, 12 noon, 6 pm and 12 midnight.

But Alexander Cordoba, an official with the Costa Rica National Meteorological Institute in charge of launching said balloons from the Juan Santamaria Airport, located in Alajuela Province, explained that the wind pushes them westward "making it very hard for the balloons to appear over San Jose."

Airport control tower staff at Juan Santamaria and Tobias Bolanos (airports), the latter located in Pavas, to the west of the city, claimed not having picked up any anomalies on radar or reports on the subject.

Despite the fact that the radio version of "Revista Informativa Nicaragua Hoy" was not transmitted on Friday to make way for Nicaragua's professional baseball series, many people phoned the newsroom and Radio Cucu to say that they had witnessed the phenomenon and requesting information about it.